Another Month Goes By...

Things are going well here at University of Houston! We just finished up our 55 hours of Prayer event on Tuesday and we're already seeing the results of our prayer. People from several different Christian organizations on campus all came together and we even had a group from Dallas come down and join us for the 3 days. It was a beautiful time of interceeding, prayer walking, and worship. Isaiah 55 showed up as a theme and we kept hearing Hope and Joy repeated as a prayer for our campus. On tuesday we entertained some intense intercession for our muslim friends here. I know God is moving amongst them and I am excited to see great things over this next year.

Thanksgiving is coming up soon and we're planning a potluck dinner for our community. We're hoping this will be a time of relationship building and a fun way of getting them ouy of their houses(the fraternitys and sororities are busy with their own stuff and we're finding it difficult to get them into our house for events, bible studies, etc...). Our plan is to have a "wall of thanksgiving" up where people can write down things they are grateful for and hang them up. We're also encouraging each other to be very intentional when we have conversations. We're learning to jump right in to talking about Jesus rather than waiting for them to bring it up or talking about other stuff.

Thanks for praying!

Joyfully,

MJ

Thoughts on God's Love

Been thinkin... decided to try and organize my thoughts by writing them on paper... computer paper...

God’s love is strange. It doesn’t make sense sometimes. God’s love is a paradox in a way. It is nothing like our human love. I was thinking the other day about being a lover of God. In Western culture when I think “lovers” I think of two people who love each other more than anyone else; two people who want to spend the rest of their lives loving each other and becoming one. This is kinda like God’s love. Kinda. I am a lover of God and he is a lover of me. And it is true that I need to love God more than anyone else. But God does not love me more than anyone else. So in that respect the two “loves” differ. I also want to become one with God and to know him infinitely. I want to love what he loves. But here in this place I realize that God’s love is very different from the loves I know. When I am in a love relationship with God suddenly I begin to desire others to be in that same type of relationship with him too. I WANT my lover to love and woo other people. How strange… you don’t see that in most love relationships. We get jealous when our “lover” loves someone else as much or more than us. It’s different with God.

As the love relationship with God grows deeper, I begin to see God’s heart and I begin to feel his love for other people. I not only begin to want him to draw other people to him, I begin to love other people too! I want His will/love for them. “Begin” is the keyword here. I have a long way to go. I wish to understand, to know the depth of the love of Christ. When I read verses like

Exodus 32:31-32 –Then Moses returned to the Lord and said “oh these people have committed a great sin, and have made for themselves a calf of gold! Yet now, if you will forgive their sin—but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written.”

and

Romans 9:1-3 – I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit—I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race,”

I am in awe of the love Moses and Paul had. It is not the love I am used to. They would be willing to give up their most precious gift—communion with God—so that others might experience it. They truly felt God’s love. Paul loved his communion with God more than anyhting, and through that love he in turn loved his people SO much that he was willing to give up his relationship with God for their sake. Um… that’s crazy. Dietrich Bonhoeffer puts it this way “Paul wants to win, for the people whom he loves, communion with God, which he loves above all things, and curses himself away from communion with God and his people, that is, because he is obedient to the command that he should surrender himself completely to his neighbor. But for this very reason in wishing to be banished from God he remains in the closest union with him. At the point where the most terrible conflict with God seems to rage, the deepest peace is established.”

Love is selfless. Love is obedience. Love is less about a relationship and more about serving. Bonhoeffer also says “This very deed(referring to the quote above), however, gives us clear proof that love ultimately seeks not communion, but the “other”; and also that the less it seeks communion the more surely it will find it.” Beautiful.

Lord give me your heart for people. I want to know your love.

Joyfully,

MJ

Characteristics of Community

So I was reading my Music Education book the other day for class and I stumbled across this list of Classroom Community characteristics:

• Sense of shared purpose
• Respect for differences
• Acceptance
• Participation
• Trust
• Communication
• Collaboration
• Commitment
• Reciprocity
• Conscious Choice
• Accountability
• Efficacy
• Equity
• Perceived Skill
• Openness
• Cohesion

I thought that was a pretty cool list. Those traits definitely don't apply just to classroom community. They can apply to the church as well.

I just thought that was an interesting find in my school book :)

~MJ~

Our Strength comes from the Lord...

WOW! Its hard to believe we've been here at the PHOS house almost two months! Time flies when you are having fun I guess. :) Our Open House party went off well and we feel it served its purpose of establishing ourselves here at Bayou Oaks. I'm not sure about the exact numbers but I think we ended up feeding around 150 people! It was a good way to introduce ourselves and let people know that we are here to serve them.

As far as we know we have been well received and accepted here at Bayou Oaks. We were somewhat afraid they wouldn't understand our role and purpose there and therefore be a little wary. However they have readily embraced our presence here and we're excited about what the future holds.

The girls Bible study has been going on for several weeks now and we have had around 5-7 girls each time. We hope to start some good conversation with specific questions and topics during each draft time we have.

♫Please be praying that girls continue to come and that their hearts would be open and ready to receive the truth.

♫Pray also that we will be leaders in the conversation and be attentive to what the Holy Spirit would have us say

The guys Bible study is starting up this month.

♫Pray that guys will come and seek God

Freshman Night is still getting moving. The attendance wasn't quite what was expected so we're changing gears a bit. Its all good cause God has a plan. Katie and I ended up moving our small group to Thursdays to fit our girls schedules and we're excited about where God is leading us. We're all learning to be flexible and accommodate people rather than plans.

♫Pray that all the small groups that have been started will continue to grow and transform all involved

♫Pray for the leaders of the small groups, that we will empower and disciple as well as grow in our own relationship through these opportunities

Here at the PHOS house we are learning how to live in community. ITS SO COOL!! We get to try and live like the early church! Its a fantastic challenge that will encourage all of us to grow and mature. We are learning to serve each other, love each other, forgive each other, etc... we're also trying to figure out how to be more unified. Katie started an intramural volleyball team for our house and that has been alot of fun. About half of us we able to join and its been cool figuring out how to work as a team as well as getting to know each other a bit more. There are several of us who are wanting to have game nights here more often as another way of building unity. We have fmaily dinner once a week and that is alot of fun too. The early morning prayer meetings(that may start happening 3 times a week) will be good for strengthening unity as well. We are realizing that uinty is important for us to be powerfully effective here. SO EXCITING!!

♫Pray for us to be humble servants of each other and that we will learn to build each other up

Other prayer requests:

♫Pray for financial support: many of our activities (like the crafts for girls bible studies and other parties for relationship purposes) require food, supplies, etc... that the BSM pays for. Since the BSM is a non-profit, they reply on financial supporters for funding.

If you are interested in helping with this, please email me

serving_him_7@sbcglobal.net

♫Pray for the unbelievers on campus. Pray that God will prepare their hearts for the gospel of truth. :)

THANK YOU!!!!

~MJ~